Kingdoms, Rulers & ResistanceAsantedocumented history
The Miracles of Okomfo Anokye
The stories about Anokye are not a biography.
Awukugua in the Eastern Region, his birthplace, where several of the sites are shown to visitors.
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The Miracles of Okomfo Anokye
The stories about Anokye are not a biography. They are a catalogue, and every district that had dealings with him kept its own item in it.
They say he was born with hair and with white clay markings already on him, and that he stood up and spoke. They say that as a child at Awukugua he could plant a palm nut in the morning and drink the wine at evening; that he pressed his footprints into solid rock, and the rock holds them; that he stuck his fingers into stone and drew water out.
They say he planted plantain and harvested it the same day, to feed people who could not wait.
They say he carved an oware board out of living rock, and that he could send a message to a place before a runner could have reached it, and be there himself before the runner arrived.
They say he turned back rain from a gathering; that he redirected a river; that he could not be killed by any weapon prepared against him; that he could be in Kumasi and Awukugua at once, and was seen in both.
And they say that at the end he went to find the medicine that would defeat death itself, told his people not to disturb his body for seven days while his spirit travelled — and someone disturbed it. He came back into a body that had already been mourned. He died. And death stayed.
If you visit Ghana. Awukugua in the Eastern Region, his birthplace, where several of the sites are shown to visitors.
The stories about Anokye are not a biography. They are a catalogue, and every district that had dealings with him kept its own item in it.
They say he was born with hair and with white clay markings already on him, and that he stood up and spoke. They say that as a child at Awukugua he could plant a palm nut in the morning and drink the wine at evening; that he pressed his footprints into solid rock, and the rock holds them; that he stuck his fingers into stone and drew water out.
They say he planted plantain and harvested it the same day, to feed people who could not wait.
They say he carved an oware board out of living rock, and that he could send a message to a place before a runner could have reached it, and be there himself before the runner arrived.
They say he turned back rain from a gathering; that he redirected a river; that he could not be killed by any weapon prepared against him; that he could be in Kumasi and Awukugua at once, and was seen in both.
And they say that at the end he went to find the medicine that would defeat death itself, told his people not to disturb his body for seven days while his spirit travelled — and someone disturbed it. He came back into a body that had already been mourned. He died. And death stayed.